The Forgotten
by Divinion
Summary: [Manga spoilers] The battle of Alverez had been difficult for all of Fiore. Just when it seemed that Fairy Tail and their allies could take very little more, Zeref was suddenly stopped in his tracks. An Iced Shell. Who could have been powerful and brave enough to sacrifice their lives to save the guild? And why can no one remember?
1. Chapter 1

The air was cold and stagnant.

It didn't feel right for a battle field to suddenly be so quiet. It was as if the entire country had held its breath in that one moment. Time did not dare to move. Dust hung in the air and bounced glitters of light against the crystalline structure. The wooden floorboards strained against the new intense weight. Magic seeped through the wizards' skin.

Natsu, Lucy and Happy glanced up into the eyes of Zeref Dragneel, captured in a block of solid ice.

The ice was huge and imposing. The tallest spikes overtook the highest tower of the guildhall, and it had crashed through several walls. A small price to pay, if it was as good as it seemed.

Lucy could feel herself ready to tremble. There was something about the still that made her reluctant to break its peace. It was unnerving. All she could hear was Natsu's heavy breathing, see his chest rising and falling even while he too refused to move. "Is this…. A trap?" she whispered in disbelief.

Natsu did not respond. He was poised, ready to attack, instincts warning him the exact same thing.

"Zeref isn't moving…" Happy observed. He flew over his friends' heads towards the new barrier.

"Happy, careful!" Natsu hissed quickly, gripping his fist.

Despite the warning, Lucy dared to take her own step forwards. Level with Natsu, she glanced over at the frozen man, the ice, and the familiarity that shook her core. "That magic, it looks almost like…" She frowned. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible. But Natsu was glancing at her now, waiting for her to finish her sentence. " _Iced Shell_."

"Iced Shell?" Natsu's face fell into a confused frown, turning back to his brother's frozen form, and more importantly the thick ice that covered him. "That's the spell that we saw on Galuna Island with Delilah."

"Deliora…" Lucy corrected. "That's right. Iced Shell… if someone cast that, it must mean…" The words caught in her chest, her eyes blazing open wide. "Someone gave their life to contain Zeref!"

Happy and Natsu froze in shock and disbelief. "You really think…?" Natsu asked.

Lucy gave a short, sharp nod. "It makes sense. I can't feel any of Zeref's magic anymore, can you?"

Natsu shook his head, but couldn't be certain. There was so much cold energy around the room it was difficult to pinpoint one specific type of magic, no matter how dark it might have been. It certainly seemed powerful enough to be an 'Iced Shell'. But there was something still uneasy about it. Unlike anything they'd felt before. It tugged and pulled at them in conflicting directions, hovering around the mages with a cold dense power, crawling close to the Fire Mage unrelentingly.

"This feels different to Galuna…" he said, folding his arms over his chest as he finally reached conclusion he was not in immediate danger. Whatever this was, he was confident that Zeref was contained. "Who would have known how to cast this?"

"Lyon?" Happy asked.

Natsu quickly shook his head. "He's not been here. I would have smelled him."

"Then do you smell who's magic this is? Who was here?" Lucy pressed, stepping forward.

Natsu was quiet. His brow furrowed. The look of deep contemplation was written on his face… and something else. Something darker than the cheerful Dragon Slayer. His fists tightened against his folded arms. His muscles tensed. His jaw squared. The longer Lucy watched him, the more frustrated he seemed to become. More than he should have been.

"I can't… work it out…" he said eventually, unable to look either of his friends in the eye as he did.

Lucy and Happy exchanged a look. That voice didn't sound much like Natsu. There was annoyance being unable to find the answers, but this went beyond that. Lucy found herself wondering exactly what had happened to Natsu in his dream, and if he really did 'sort out some things' like he'd insisted.

Which reminded her quickly why they'd been delayed, why Zeref was more than just a monster, and what could have been. Luckily, even in her panic, it didn't take long to find her target: A heavy set tome written in ancient ink, lying close to the edge of ice and thankfully unaffected by its sharp shards. Lucy ran over to it, brushing away the debris and a strange necklace and uncovering the three letters. "The book of E.N.D…. it's here…" she said, picking it up. It was safe. Even with half of the guild destroyed, somehow it was safe!

"We got Natsu's book, Zeref has been stopped… that means we won, right?" Happy asked.

Lucy held the book close to her chest as she looked up at the gleaming shell. From what she could see inside, Zeref seemed less than peaceful. His features were frozen into disbelief, and she couldn't imagine how an immortal must have felt being trapped for eternity encased in ice. He was imprisoned in a way he couldn't hurt anyone anymore. She didn't know what would happen now. Supposedly, someone would try yet again to harness the power of Moon-drip and melt him free. The last Iced Shell she'd seen had worn down the demon inside. That would be the luckiest outcome, but even if it didn't have the power to do that, it would give them the time to prepare one final takedown. That alone was a victory.

But the cost had been high, higher than they could even imagine. All they knew was a life had given strength to these walls that now kept Zeref serene. Someone had died so that innocent lives across Fiore had been spared. That enough was reason to keep Happy's question lingering in the air unanswered.

The guild could be rebuilt, but whoever had protected it could not.

X

Zeref may have been defeated, but the day was far from won: Acnologia still reigned in the skies above. Many of Zeref's men had yet to learn of his defeat and were deadly enemies even without their emperor. But Fairy Tail continued to do what Fairy Tail did best: it stuck together, as a family, and chased away the darkness with visions of light and hope. It took a long time to destroy the powerful dragon, to silence the evil spriggan army, to put right the wrongs that had been thrust on them.

Only then, only once the world turned eerily calm, could the question once again be asked….

 _Had they won?_

They marched homeward as a chaotic crowd. Friends held one another and helped drag them forward. They met familiar faces and breathed sighs of relief, exchanged brief words of horrible stories and lucky endings. They flocked towards the broken guildhall like moths to a flame, wizards of Fairy Tail stepping up to the giant doors of their home and feeling dismayed to see the huge wooden barriers of protection hanging on their hinges and open wide to the world. There was barely anything left. The floor continued to buckle and crack beneath the weight of ice. Parts of the ceiling looked ready to give out at a moment's notice and the rest had already crashed into the floor below.

"We think it's an Iced Shell… Like the one we saw on Galuna Island. If it is, that means whoever cast it must have sacrificed themselves to do so," Lucy explained in a small voice, not so much for the elders who would know this already, but for those who had been lucky enough to never witness magic on this scale. "But we don't know anyone that could have cast it…" she trailed off, growing more uncertain by the second.

Her words hung unanswered for a few seconds. Whispers echoed through the wizards, growing louder as the crowds parted for Lyon Vastia to step forward. A sense of duty set heavily on his shoulders as he examined the creation. His sharp eyes scanned the ice, searching quickly for anything that could answer the mystery. "It doesn't look like any Iced Shell I've ever seen…" he admitted, raising a hand and pressing his fingers against it.

He drew a sharp breath. It was horrifically cold. Even as he pulled back his hand, he could feel the icy edge burning against his fingertips. "It's been imbued with another kind of magic. A Lost Magic," he explained. But that wasn't everything. There was something else in the magical energy, something familiar that made him frown just a little more. Something that made his heart beat a little faster. "Ultear…?" he found himself whispering against the glass.

"It can't be! I saw her. She saved us… Charle, Sherria… she wouldn't have been able to do anything like this," Wendy promised.

"If this is a combination of Lost Magic and Iced Shell, we will have to find out exactly what this new spell is capable of," the Fairy Tail master interjected. He coughed fiercely into his hand, a brief reminder of the trauma he had just faced paired with the bitter chill in the air. "One thing is clear…" he said as his voice shook. "I believe that is more powerful than any Iced Shell to have been created. I highly suspect even Moon Drip would have no affect against it. Zeref has undoubtedly been defeated."

With the master's words, there was an intense relief that spread through the uncertainty. It was finally over. The war was over. The casualties had been to a minimum and they were all able to spot the faces they needed to see within the crowds. They were tired, worn and wounded. But alive. At least, the ones that were remembered. The faces that were searched for within the crowds. It was as good an excuse as any for a celebration. Even despite their injuries, the weakness that threatened to pull them to their knees, there was a new sense of determination to enjoy the moment.

The crowd became louder and spread out into the warm autumn night. The stories spread like a wildfire against the unnatural chill of ice, filled with danger and warmth in equal measures as they told their loved ones of how close they'd come to defeat or victory.

It was surprisingly easy to ignore the looming statue above them. Turning away was enough to forget in the moment, like a cloud hovering in the back of their vision that the sight of friends and family brushed away. Every so often, a wizard would turn to the giant ice structure, questioned who had saved them, who the mysterious and brave stranger who had given their lives for them could have been, and continue their stories.


	2. Chapter 2

Lucy leaned against a table in the middle of the great celebration. It had been the closest she'd been able to find to an actual chair, a crowd made of friends new and old flocking around her. The land around the Fairy Tail guild – or what was left of it – had become a beacon of hope against the charred warzone. Nakama raised glasses to the sky, cheering on their victory and exchanging their stories. Things never seemed quite so bad when whispering across campfires with the warming hum of alcohol to fuel their confidence.

Natsu had been taking the centre stage for some time, boasting relentlessly about each of his epic fights. While there were several opportunities for Lucy to remind him that she had been there – and how wrong he was on many details – she stayed quiet. The drink was going down easily, Natsu's words were soothing while filled with enthusiasm, and it should have been enough to help her smile and laugh the night away.

But there was a shadow. A darkness niggling her thoughts. A sad mystery she couldn't face.

"Lucy? Lucy?"

Happy must have been calling her name a few times now. Even Natsu had stopped talking, stepping away from his 'audience' to watch her carefully. A blush crossed her cheeks, moving to turn away but realising she hadn't been looking in their direction for some time. The giant statue dominating the broken guildhall had taken her subconscious attention.

"Sorry," she apologised under her breath. "But… Don't you think that this is strange…?"

"What is?" Natsu asked, moving over to lean against the table beside her.

She looked back at him briefly, trying to choose her words, before shifting her gaze towards the crowd. It seemed to be growing louder and more overwhelming by the second. Usually, the cheer of Fairy Tail would leave her with a warming glow. It felt as if all her instincts were pulling her towards drowning in the pleasantness. Only her uneasy logic kept her afloat. "I mean _this_. Everyone having fun, acting like nothing happened and someone…. someone _died_. And we have no idea who it even was…"

"I guess that is kind of strange…" Natsu reluctantly agreed. He didn't _want_ to feel miserable. He felt the same tug towards the celebration that Lucy had, the same need to enjoy the night like so many of his friends. He'd been willing to ignore the ice, mostly in favour of drinking away the dark questions. But now it felt wrong, like they were dancing on the grave of a stranger.

"They must have been a friend though, right?" Happy asked, receiving questioning looks. "If they stopped Zeref they must have been on our side."

Lucy shrugged. "Not necessarily. They may have just had a common enemy."

"A common enemy?" Natsu repeated. "You mean like someone from Alverez?"

"I don't see why not. No one here recognises him. If they were powerful enough to cast a spell like that, I would have thought _someone_ would have heard of him…" Lucy thought aloud, staring back at the many faces of friends and nakama that drank around her. No one else seemed to notice. No one else seemed to even glance at the sharp ice. It sent an unnaturally cold shiver down her spine.

"But who?" Happy asked.

That was the biggest question. But even as the three spoke, it felt all too tempting to give up on this entire conversation. It would prove impossible to find an answer, their instincts told them, and if it really was a member of the invading army there would have been few tears to shed. It took unnaturally high concentration for Natsu just to continue. "There was one of the guys who… used ice, right? We met him… I think?"

"We did?" Happy asked.

"I think so…" Lucy said quietly, frowning to herself. It had been a whirlwind ride during the entire attack, and she could only hope her muddled mind stemmed from exhaustion. There had been so many fights, shifting from one enemy to the next, testing both against her strength and her relationships... "Juvia!" she said, suddenly jumping to her feet.

The young man and his exceed just blinked at her.

"I know who you're talking about - Juvia was the last person we saw him with!" she explained, hitting her fist against her hand. It was all coming back to her now. Invel: an enemy mage who been one of the closest Spriggan to Zeref, something akin to a second-in-command. More importantly, he was also a master of ice magic. There must have been a connection to the Iced Shell.

If nothing else, at least now there was a lead. Lucy wasted no time. She was already on the move, looking out for the flash of blue hair against the wave of wizards. "Juvia!" she called out, slipping between friends and gatherings. "Juvia!"

"Hey, Luce, wait up!"

"Juvia! Juvia! Have you seen Juvia anywhere?" Lucy asked, going from one wizard to the next. "Juvia!"

For all that Lucy had seemed dazed and distracted, Juvia Lockser was in an entirely different world. There was something about her that just didn't seem all _there_. Even as her name was called, she didn't register it, as if it had been her name in a previous life. It was only when Lucy began to run up to her that she realised she was being summoned and drawn back into reality. "Lucy…?" she whispered.

"Juvia, I was beginning to worry about you," Lucy admitted with a sigh. There was still a fear that someone had been left behind, the painful notion that perhaps they had forgotten a friend who was lost on the battlefield. She quickly pushed away that thought. "Juvia, do you remember Invel? The ice Spriggan?"

"Ice…?" The word caught in the back of her throat. She looked from Lucy, to Natsu, to Happy. The faces expecting her to give an answer when she didn't even fully understand the question. A Spriggan… Yes, the enemy… She remembered his face now, the silver hair and unflinching gaze. Shining glasses and painful magic. "Why do you want to know about Invel?" she asked hesitantly.

"There might be a connection to the Iced Shell."

Juvia could feel herself weakening. Shaking. The coldness in the air constricted around her, taking away her breath. "That-that doesn't make sense. No, no, Juvia-Juvia doesn't think so…" she said, every word quiet and matched with tiny shakes of her head.

"Juvia, are you ok…?" Lucy asked, putting a hand on her arm.

She didn't know. Perhaps her near death experience had left more wounds than she could see. The battlefield had left her vision a flustered blur which didn't seem to be getting much better even now it was over. Ever since they had gained their victory, she had been wandering around lost, looking for something she couldn't put her finger on. A comfort from the white noise in her head.

Eventually, she shook her head and took a step backwards. "Juvia is tired," she decided. Yes, tired, that seemed the best explanation. After a good night's sleep, she would be right as rain. "Juvia will go home now."

Juvia certainly looked _tired_ , but Lucy's concern was not sedated so easily. She took another step forward, her hands on the side of each of Juvia's arms. "Do you want us to walk you home?" she asked in a forceful whisper.

There was no chance of a refusal. Even as Juvia tried to open her mouth to protest, the dragon slayer already had an arm around her shoulders and was dragging her towards Fairy Hills. Juvia's face burned red. She was only vaguely aware that they were still talking to her, telling her that she would be taken care of and that she would feel better after rest. Their words disappeared into that pleasant, comforting tone. She knew she should have been listening, but it was taking every effort just to put one foot in front of the other. Just for tonight, she could let herself disappear. She could slip into the empty feeling, embracing it until she had a chance to wash away the grime and blood of the day.

"Are you going to be okay in this place by yourself?" Natsu asked.

Juvia blinked herself awake, realising only then that they were already standing outside of Fairy Hills. When did that happen? She must have been silent the entire time… "S-Sorry…" she whispered, nodding and released herself from her friends' grasp. "Yes, Juvia will be fine. Juvia is very tired. Just going to bed," she promised them both, taking several steps forward.

The rain woman had already given Natsu and Lucy more than enough reason to question if she was ready to be by herself, even if they didn't know what was wrong. The dragon slayer stared into up to layers of windows, trying to spot even the slightest of movements inside the huge dormitories. Most of the familiar faces that lived here were the same friends they'd walked past, drinking and celebrating and seemingly nowhere near close to stopping. "We can come in with you if you want," he suggested.

Juvia slowed to a stop under the giant archway. The silence was heavy. The question seemed heavier. It seemed only natural that her friends were concerned, but the last thing she wanted right now was to be sociable. With a deep breath, she plastered the very best smile on her face. It almost looked believable as she turned back around, waving to them both gently. "Really, Juvia is fine. Enjoy the party," she insisted.

Lucy's mouth twisted in disbelief, but she eventually nodded. "You know where we are if you need us."

They couldn't convince her, no matter how anxious they appeared. But even now, in her confused and disorientated state, Juvia was kind enough to accept their words. She nodded to them and waved until the very last second when she disappeared through the door. Their concern would not go in vain. Knowing that she had a place to go helped Juvia more than she'd care to admit. If the void became too much, she promised herself that she would return back to her friends, back to Lucy, and back the guild in which she belonged.

For now, however, all she longed for was her bed and her bath, both of which were activities she would much rather take alone.

 _"Or with you, _-sama~"_

The sudden words felt like a stinging headache.

It didn't sound like her own thoughts. Perhaps instead it was the mysterious 'Juvia' that everyone seemed so keen to speak to. The girl who seemed more like a stranger than her own identity. She was going out of her mind, she decided, letting out a long and low breath as she continued through the doorways. She let her muscle memory lead the familiar route to her bedroom, pushing her key into the lock. At least her body still knew the way, even if her mind was absent or broken. Her hands still knew how to turn the door handle, her feet still knew how to step inside.

And as she looked around her room, every part of her body knew exactly how to _scream_.

* * *

 ** _I'm... alive? Sort of? I'm trying to come back out of my writer's block, bare with me!_**

 ** _As always, reviews are always appreciated and keep me going._**


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